A British Court has decided that the Portuguese Treasury must pay €1.8 billion to Banco Santander and that the ‘swaps’ contracts agreed between the Spanish bank and some of Portugal’s State-owned public transport companies are valid.

Portugal’s government has appealed time and time again against earlier rulings that the ‘swaps’ contracts were legal, this is the fifth such court hearing, and is to appeal yet again, this time to UK’s Supreme Court despite legal bills already running into the millions.

The former Prime Minister of Portugal, António Guterres, was sworn in on Monday December 12th as Secretary General of the United Nations, its ninth leader in the organisation’s 71-year history.

The former head of the UN’s refugee programme was confirmed as the choice as the new Secretary General by the UN General Assembly in October and officially takes over from Ban Ki-moon on Jan 1st next year.

Portugal's attorney general's office has confirmed that officials are conducting searches in Portugal and Switzerland as part of a corruption investigation into plasma* supplies to the country's national health service.

Magistrates and police have searched around 40 homes, business premises and the offices of the Health Ministry and the National Health Service, and two locations in Switzerland, all part of the 'máfia do sangue,' or 'blood mafia.'

Spain is believed to have moved closer to the oft-mooted notion of changing time.

The country’s labour minister said on Monday that the government is considering moving the clocks back one hour.

Portugal has provided four wines in the worldwide Top 100 wines, according to Wine Spectator. One of them, Dão's Quinta de Cabriz 2014, was the cheapest on the list, selling at under €10.

The Dão region lead Portugal’s winners but unlike in the 2014 result, none made the top ten for the year.

A series of earthquakes, 10 kilometres north-west of Alcoutim, woke households early on Monday morning, December 12th.

The earthquake peaked at 3.6 on the Richter scale. This level can be felt by people but is unlikely to cause much damage apart from the shaking of indoor objects and causing animals some disquiet.

The Algarve’s only home-grown, quality glossy magazine spread from the coffee tables of the region’s villas, hotels and business reception areas in 2000 to cover Lisbon, Madeira and several overseas territories.

The Open Media Group which owns The Portugal Resident and Barlavento newspapers, plus a swathe of other titles, has just launched the 100th edition of Essential Algarve.

The 2010 legislation enabling EDP electricity customers on low incomes to access the ‘social tariff’ cheap rate at last has seen some results.

EDP failed adequately to advertise the low rate deal, ending up with a €7.5 million fine from the regulator which has been challenged by the EDP boss, António Mexia and remains unpaid.